This Is the Way the World Ends
by BoxingBunny
Summary: When a group of teens run across a young woman keeping a dark secret, who will be left standing when her secret is brought into the light?  ON HIATUS UNTIL JANUARY 2013


AN: Okay, I know the last thing I should be doing is starting a new story, but I'm hoping this will get the creativity flowing again for my other stories. Yeah, it's a lame excuse but it's what I'm sticking with. Anyway, I've become mildly obsessed with High School of the Dead (not surprising considering my love for pretty much anything with zombies). In a couple of days I watched the anime and am completely caught up with the manga. I was so happy that the anime followed the manga so closely. There was only a very small amount of deviation in the order of a couple of chapters.

So here's what we're doing: for those of you familiar with HOTD and its timeline, I'm starting this off after they've left the mall and Kohta has his breakdown, but from there it's going to take a pretty severe turn. Pairings are undecided. Hell, there may not even be any. I'm not really sure what direction I'll be taking this in the long run, but I do have the basic premise of the story hashed out so don't worry! Also, HOTD takes place in a very vague area of Japan (the (as far as I can tell) fictional city called Tokonosu), so I'm going to fudge a few things and we'll just say that Tokonosu is an outlying area of Tokyo.

Happy reading and, as always, I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own, please don't sue!

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This Is the Way the World Ends

Act 1: Not with a bang or a whimper, but with the dead breaking down the doors.

Silence reigned through the small group as they made their way down the highway towards the east police station. They moved at a brisk walk, not wanting to make the amount of noise that would come with running. But that silence was broken when Takashi noticed that one member of their group had fallen behind to stare down a side street.

"Saya, what's wrong?" He called back to the pink-haired genius.

Taking a couple of steps towards the street, Saya squinted her eyes as though trying to see something far away and answered, "I'm not sure. It looks like someone already killed several of Them in this area."

"That can't be too strange, can it?" Rei asked as she moved to see what Saya was looking at. "We know we're not the only survivors in the city."

Sighing as though she were talking to an annoying child, Saya rounded on Rei and bit out, "I know that! But how many of those survivors do you think are using arrows? And it looks like they're doing a good job, too."

Hearing this, the rest of the group gathered around the entrance to the street. Kohta, as the group's weapons expert, glanced over to their elected leader, Takashi, before cautiously heading down the street to check out the damage. "Saeko, you keep lookout here. Let us know if any of Them from the highway start coming this way," Takashi said to the kendo captain before taking off down the street with the rest of the group to inspect the scene.

"Someone's taking out this many of Them with just a bow and arrows?" The blonde and busty nurse, Shizuka, asked.

"These arrows are carbon fiber," Kohta offered up. "They're flexible but very strong and lightweight. And look…whoever shot these clearly knows what they're doing." He said as he pointed to the arrow protruding from just off-center of the creature's forehead. "They know to target the head instead of the heart. And they only had to use one arrow for each of Them."

"Do you think they're still around here?" Takashi asked.

"There's no telling," Saya answered. "And it's not like we can just start yelling out to ask. It would attract too much attention from Them."

Several deep groans from down the street caught their attention and the teens swore under their breath. Takashi counted five of Them that were heading their direction. But before he could say anything to Rei or Kohta, one of Them fell to the ground with an arrow protruding from the side of its head. And the first was swiftly followed by four more.

Shocked and on high alert, they began looking around the immediate area for signs of anyone else. But it was Saeko who was running to join her companions after hearing the groans that spotted movement from a window in one of the buildings lining the street. "There was movement in that building, Takashi. Should we leave before They reach the street?" Saeko asked.

Watching for anymore movements from the building, Takashi answered, "No, I don't think what you saw was one of Them. There's another survivor around here."

All waited anxiously for more signs of life from within the building, but when none came they looked between themselves unsure of what to do.

"Should we go inside and check it out?" Takashi put the question to his friends.

"What about my dad?" Rei asked with a small amount of panic edging into her voice.

"We're still going to check the police station," Takashi reassured. "But what if someone in there needs our help?" Seeing the faces of his comrades made him rethink his statement. He knew as well as they did that their previous attempts at helping other survivors hadn't gone well at all. "Fine, but what if whoever is in there can help us?"

"Then why haven't they come out?" Saya pointed out when none of the others said anything.

Rei joined into the debate saying, "And what if they're crazy?" She looked directly at Takashi as she added, "It wouldn't be the first time we ran into someone who had lost their mind."

Memories of man attacking Rei flashed in Takashi's mind. The man had gone insane after his family had been turned into Them and he'd had to kill them. Most survivors that they met were honestly only hanging onto their sanity by a fine thread. It was amazing to him that their group—consisting mostly of high school students with the exception of a school nurse, a young girl, and a small dog—had managed to cope as well as they had so far. But he pushed forward.

"Then why would they have saved us? Whoever is in there had to use five of their arrows to help us. They could have just as easily killed us. We wouldn't have known what had hit us until it was too late," Takashi reasoned. "And who's to say that they don't think we're the crazy ones?"

"Another long-range fighter who doesn't make much noise would be helpful," Kohta reasoned but flinched when Saya sent him an icy glare.

"Takashi," Saeko spoke as she rested a gloved hand on his shoulder. "You are our leader. Make your decision and we will follow your orders," she reminded him with her voice as calm and solid as ever.

Takashi's brown eyes locked with Saeko's blue ones and he felt his shaky resolve begin to strengthen. She always seemed to have that power with him.

Releasing a deep breath, Takashi faced the rest of his friends and began giving orders. "Saeko and Miss Shizuka, come with me to look for survivors in the building. I don't want them to think that we're trying to attack them."

"But why do you want me to go?" Shizuka asked. She knew that usually her only times of usefulness were when someone was hurt.

Takashi turned to face the nurse. "Well if the survivor or survivors think we're just a bunch of gun-toting high school students, they probably won't trust us. It wouldn't be the first time. Seeing that there's an adult in the group might help put them at ease."

"And we're guarding the entrance?" Rei asked as she sent a sour look in Saeko's direction. She hated it when Takashi chose the kendo girl.

"That's the plan," Takashi said with a nervous smile. He still wasn't completely confident in his ability to lead the rag-tag group, but if they all trusted his judgment then he would do his best.

"Fine," Rei huffed as she adjusted her rifle and bayonet against her hip.

Takashi sighed before heading into the building, hoping that whatever they found would be for the best.

=.=.=.=

"Takashi…" Saeko whispered as she pointed to several corpses lying in the hallway. They were all dead with clean holes through the head, but there were no arrows to be found.

"Which floor did you see someone on?" Shizuka asked as they continued to move finding none of Them that were still alive.

"It was one more floor up," Saeko answered as she checked the stairwell and saw that everything was clear. "It looks like whoever is here possibly cleared all of Them from this building."

"That's all the more reason to see if they'd like to come with us," Takashi said. This would be the first person since they'd left Saya's house who would really know how to take care of themselves.

As they made their way to the third floor of the building, a smell that had made itself known on the stairs became stronger and stronger. It wasn't what they had expected in the building, and it oddly brought back a feeling of normalcy when compared to the chaos and decay that the world had been thrown into.

Shizuka was the first one to put a name to it though. "Is that…bleach?"

The smell was strong and clean. But the big question was _why_the entire floor smelled of bleach.

That was when they heard a door slam shut from further down the hall. "Damn!" Takashi yelled when he noticed another exit route in the direction that the noise had come from. "They took a different exit!" He announced before running down the hall and slinging open the door to the emergency stairwell.

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Rei was leaning against the exterior wall of the building they were keeping watch on when the sound of a door slamming from the alley next to them drew her attention. She and Kohta immediately got their weapons ready while Saya pushed Alice behind her. But when Alice saw that their canine companion, Zeke, wasn't growling, she shouted "Wait!"

The others faltered enough to watch dumbly as a figure clad in black bolted from the alley and took a right onto the street. They were yanking what arrows they could out of the bodies lying around. Rei ran into the street as well to block the other person's current escape route.

When the other person noticed her, they stopped dead and the two had a stare-down. Rei was a little startled as she looked at what was another woman standing before her. The woman was donned in leather pants that were tucked into knee-high leather boots. A leather jacket clung to her torso and was zipped all the way up to cover much of her neck as well. She wore fingerless gloves and let her black hair fall loosely down her back with bangs left to frame her face. The strap of a duffel bag crossed her chest and a quiver of arrows peeked out from behind her shoulder. In one hand she clutched what appeared to be a hi-tech bow and in the other were the slightly bloody arrows that she'd pulled from Them.

Finally, Rei's eyes connected with the woman's blue orbs. She seemed cautious and more than ready to run. So Rei did the only thing she could think to do; she released her weapon to dangle from its strap, raised her hands in the air to show no harm, and smiled.

When Kohta, Saya, Alice, and Zeke ran into the street as well and saw that Rei had released her weapon, Kohta also began to loosen his hold on his own weapon.

That was when they heard the door in the alley slam open again. The three figures of Takashi, Saeko, and Shizuka came running out to stop behind the still unnamed woman.

And none of them spoke. All were uncertain of how to proceed.

It was only when the woman laid eyes on Alice that her stance finally relaxed some and she smiled gently. And Alice immediately responded in kind. The small girl took several steps forward before Saya grabbed her shoulder and stopped her in her tracks. "My name is Alice!" The seven-year-old introduced.

Taking advantage of the break in silence, Takashi stepped up into his position as leader. "We aren't trying to attack you or anything. You took out five of Them for us and we really appreciate it. I'm Takashi Komuro."

The woman turned to eye him up and down before nodding and answering. "My name is Kagome Higurashi."

"Do you have any companions of your own, Miss Higurashi?" Saeko asked.

Kagome's lips drew into a thin line for a moment before she answered, "Not anymore."

"What about family?" Rei chimed in from the other side of the street.

A fist tightened around Kagome's bow before she responded over her shoulder. "They're all dead. I'm traveling alone right now."

Saya scoffed lightly. "Do you have any idea where you're going?"

"Not really. I'm just looking for a safe-zone I guess." Kagome was beginning to get a little annoyed that she was being interrogated by people that she had literally just met.

"Well," Takashi said to bring Kagome's attention back to him. "We're from this area and are doing the same while looking for some of our parents. With what we've seen you do to Them, we wanted to see if you'd like to travel with us."

Kagome gave him a skeptical look and took her time in sizing up each member of the group.

Takashi himself seemed capable and sane, which was a big plus. With spiky black hair, chocolate eyes, a high school uniform, and a shotgun, he seemed every bit the recent post-apocalyptic teen.

The girl beside him had a warrior's eyes, she noted. She hadn't been given the girl's name yet, but she noted that the girl had indigo hair and blue eyes. The fit but curvy shape of her body reminded her of Sango; the body of a young woman who had been trained to fight. Kagome also noticed that she didn't carry a gun, but a sword.

The older woman standing behind the two teens was slightly taller. Her long blonde hair was pulled back loosely and caring brown eyes were looking directly at her. Despite her bombshell figure, the woman seemed genuine and more intelligent than one might assume. People couldn't get away with lacking sense anymore…not in this new world.

Turning slightly, Kagome's eyes first rested on the young woman she'd seen first. Again she didn't have a name, but she saw honesty in the girl's cinnamon eyes. There wasn't any deceit there. With her light-brown hair partially pulled back, knee and elbow pads over her school uniform, and a large rifle secured to her body by a strap, she matched Takashi in post-apocalyptic apparel.

There was another young woman still holding onto the young girl's shoulder. Harsh honey eyes framed by glasses stared out at her from behind pink bangs while the rest of her rose-colored hair was pulled into two pig-tails. She wore two t-shirts and a pair of shorts with suspenders, but was still obviously young enough to be in high school with the others.

One other young man who appeared armed to the teeth was beside the pink-haired girl. He was shorter and rounder than Takashi and wore glasses while shaggy black hair framed his face. But his eyes were kind despite his military-esque appearance.

The only ones left were a young girl, Alice, with pink hair and violet eyes wearing jeans and two t-shirts, and a small white dog with black ears.

Turning her attention back to Takashi, Kagome thought hard about the possible outcomes to traveling with a group of people that she'd just met. She didn't know them at all. She only knew a few of their names. But it was a dangerous world to be alone in. She hadn't slept well the last couple of nights because she always needed to be on alert. If they turned out to be bad new she could defend herself and make a get-away. And she'd had less-than-friendly encounters with her past traveling companions before they turned out to be fantastic friends.

Biting her lip, Kagome took several tentative steps toward Takashi before laying her bow to rest on her duffel bag and holding her right hand out in front of her. Takashi gripped her right hand with his own before making more introductions and leading the group back in the direction of the highway.

Kagome glanced over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of red and silver but turned back to walk with the group as the bottom of her stomach dropped. She knew deep in her heart that her new arrangements would be able to last for long.

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AN: Okay, so it's a very shaky first chapter. But I've never read any HOTD fanfiction and am still trying to figure out the best ways to characterize them with the written word. And for now it's VERY late and I have to work in the morning so I'm calling it a day here. Let me know what you think! Also, there was a little shout-out to Amanda Hocking and her book 'Hollowland' in the chapter title. If you like YA/zombie literature, give it a read!


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